"I don't know either," he admitted. "All I can tell you is the bond… it's not safe. To both our packs, to both of us."

The world shrunk in an instant, the boundary between two enemies thinner than I ever dared to imagine. And still, I sensed something fragile—hope, perhaps—beneath the ache and duty that bent us both.

Before I could speak again, the snapping of branches broke our fragile moment. We tensed simultaneously—yielding to habits honed by war and vigilance.

A group of wolf guards came from between the trees, eyes bulging with suspicion and rage. Kane's posture shifted into alpha dominance, warning them off unspoken, but I recognized that any observer of this encounter could mean disaster.

I retreated, voice barely above a whisper. "I have to leave."

He stepped forward, his fingers tracing across mine—a contact that burned even through gloves. "Be cautious, Elena. This connection… it's a curse and a blessing. We need to find a way past it."

And then he vanished, gone into shadows as black as an in-the-middle-of-the-night wolf.

I ran back to the estate, my heart pounding with dread and something new: possibility.

With the sun below the horizon and the long shadows upon the snow, one thing was certain in my bones: the war between our packs was hardly over. But now, tied together by something that went beyond generations of hatred, so was I.

Our destinies entwined, tied hand in hand by the heartless jest of the moon